


Moonchild

by gypsiangel



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Blood and Gore, F/M, M/M, PTSD, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, Violence, Zombie Apocalypse, characteristic racism, more relationship tags as I go, mostly Luna-centric, sexual situations m/f and m/m
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-07-19 02:02:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7340173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gypsiangel/pseuds/gypsiangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The optimistic and happy child was gone, and in her place was a cool and quiet woman that wasn’t afraid of blood and death. She did what needed to be done to survive, and to keep her loved ones safe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first attempt at writing The Walking Dead, so if I get stuff wrong, forgive me and keep reading. Lol, it's fanfiction for a reason, besides, even in fandoms I'm well-versed in, I sometimes change things to suit my own designs. ;) Any kind of positive feedback is incredibly welcome, so don't hesitate to drop a word or two. There will be more pairings added, I'm just not sure who needs to go where. Thanks for reading!

*~*~*

            Dull eyes stared out the dingy window, watching the masses rushing around in a high panic. She was very still, very quiet in her corner room, even as she heard the thumps and shouts outside in the hall. There hadn’t been much need for speaking, at least not since the final battle of Hogwarts where she’d gone toe to toe with some of the nastiest magics known to wizarding kind. They’d prevailed that day, by the skin of their teeth. _Harry_ had prevailed, though he had come back from it different. Different in the way she was different. It hadn’t been easy for him to adjust to the slightly skewed way of seeing things. It had brought them closer.

            Harry didn’t mind her not speaking, in fact he was perfectly fine as long as she wasn’t too far away. Luna wasn’t quite sure exactly when he’d become less of a friend and more of a protector… a brother. The others hadn’t understood, least of all Ginny. The youngest Weasley had taken Harry’s withdrawal hard, as was her due. Luna would have wondered about the veracity of the girl’s affections if she hadn’t. Hermione and Ron had noticed, of course, but they had been ensconced in their own world of rebuilding the life that had nearly been stolen from them.

            She put a hand against the glass of the window and felt it rattle with the commotion. It was almost time to go. The wards on the building were at the breaking point and it would be a matter of hours before the Leaky Cauldron was overrun with the reanimated dead. Tears flooded her eyes and she felt very safe letting them leak out in her little room with no one to see. Not that Luna had ever cared what people thought of her. She wasn’t one to show hard emotion. Everything was locked tight, deep inside where even she had a hard time finding it sometimes. It was locked inside that little box that she’d created when she was small and she’d seen her mother blasted apart by blinding lights and maniacal laughter that came from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time.

            There was a smart rap on her door, then it was swinging open. In the reflection, she could see her dark haired friend stride in, carrying a couple satchels. “It’s time to go, Luna. We’ve run out of time.” She heaved a breath and turned, reaching for the blinding lavender satchel with the stars dancing along the sides. She didn’t ask if he’d gathered what they needed, she knew he had. She knew that where they were going, it would be different. Different and strange and frightening. The others were no doubt already downstairs; Neville, Seamus, Ron, and Hermione. The rest of the Weasleys had already gone to Romania to go to ground with Charlie on the dragon refuge, figuring it safest of their options. Idly, she wondered why Ron and Hermione hadn’t gone right along with them. It did seem much safer than coming on the quest for answers.

            That merely wasn’t their way, Luna mused as she took Harry’s hand. Just as it wasn’t hers or Harry’s, or Neville’s. Even three years after the war’s end, some things never changed. Seamus had been a wild card, thrown in at the last minute when the wry Irishman had come bursting into the private room at the back. He had looked the worse for wear, filthy with dirt and caked blood. After shouting something intelligible about his mother and rot, he’d collapsed in a heap at their stunned feet. Cleaning charms and diagnosis spells determined that he hadn’t been infected by the plague bitten, but he was dehydrated and at the point of complete magical burnout.

            “Wherever we go, I’ll be with you, Luna,” Harry told her suddenly, stopping their progress just inside the threshold of her room. She looked up into his green eyes and smiled, they both ignored the fact that it was less dreamy and more tremulous.

            “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Harry,” she said, so softly that it was nearly lost in the din of feet stomping up the stairs.

            It was his turn to smile and it hurt her heart to see it. “All right then, I will do my absolute best to be there with you. How’s that?”

            “That’ll do, I guess,” she said, then went on tiptoes to press her lips to his cheek. “I’m ready, Mr. Potter.”

            It was a marvel to see color blossoming up his neck. The curve of her lip was a bit more real this time as they stepped into the madness.

*~*~*


	2. Chapter 2

 

*~*~*

 

            _Swing, connect, turn. Swing, duck, thrust, connect, pull back._ The sounds of the battle around her were muffled as Luna fell into the old rhythm of keeping herself alive. She didn’t worry about the others; they would take care of themselves. She was aware of them, however, in that odd way that she thought mothers always seemed to know where their offspring were. She just didn’t worry about them.

            Black ichor splashed into her face as she swung her short sword again, the blade hitting and snapping the thing’s spine where it met the back of its head. She’d trained herself to not think of them as former humans, or even animals. They were mindless things with nothing but restless hunger to propel them. Dislodging her weapon, she drew back and hit again, finally severing the spine. It was strange that the nerves were still connected, despite the system failure and decay. Just to be on the safe side, she rammed the point of her dagger into the scull through the temple once it collapsed at her feet.

            When she pulled upright, the skirmish was over and her silvery eyes darted around her group, automatically taking stock of who was still standing and who… wasn’t. It was a habit she’d picked up only a couple weeks out of the sanctity of the wizarding world. It seemed like it was so long ago, those first days and weeks thinking on her feet, falling back into the old habits that had kept them alive during the war against the Dark Lord and his followers. Now, it seemed a little too automatic, too routine. It didn’t make her jumpy and sick anymore.

            Daryl was bending over a walker, filthy hand jerking out one of the precious arrows he was almost obsessive about keeping and cleaning. Merle was leaning up against one of the automobiles lining the road, smoking one of the cigarettes he’d scavenged, breathing in deep of the poison before exhaling up into the air. She wondered idly if he would actually smoke real pipe tobacco if she could find it. It was a different kind of smoke, a different kind of smell that was almost comforting to her. It brought memories of her father and evenings by their home fire. She blinked away those thoughts. Nothing good would come of it. That world was gone for her, as was her father.

            T-Dog was leaning over with his hands braced on his thighs, out of breath and shaking his head wearily. There wasn’t any sign of injury on the dark-skinned man, he was merely having a moment to gather himself. Luna felt a stab of sympathy; it was easy to become overwhelmed with all of it. There wasn’t a moment these days where there wasn’t imminent threat.

            “Everyone good?” Shane demanded, breathing in deep as he looked over the small group with sharp eyes. He found Luna, looking her over closer than he did the men. It didn’t offend her, not really. It just meant that he thought of her as someone to protect. She didn’t correct him, but she didn’t answer as she glazed over him to eye the other woman in their group. Andrea was wiping her brow with the back of a shaky hand, her fingers wet with blackened, mostly congealed blood. She was incredibly pale and looked like she was going to vomit at any moment. Luna waited until the other woman stood back upright and gave her a cursory glance. No scratches or bites, just bruises and splatter from the dead.

            Luna used the hem of her shirt to clean the blade of her short sword, muttering a small cleaning charm to make sure none of the rot lingered. When she slid it into the sheath fastened to her waist, she glanced up and saw that Shane was still watching her, his dark eyes intense as they followed her every move. He’d become the leader of the group she and the Dixons had joined a couple weeks before, mostly out of default. He made her feel strange, as something was off with his demeanor. As a muggle police officer before the world fell apart, he _was_ the most qualified to keep order in their group. She just wished that he wouldn’t watch her so closely. It made her uncomfortable.

            There was more than just distrust in his gaze, and she didn’t know how to interpret it or how to react. He barely talked to her and it was obvious that he didn’t trust her, or the Dixon brothers. The boys, he could get around. They were abrasive and uncouth, but they were men that had skills that could keep the group together and alive. There wasn’t much mystery to their origins, or how they managed to get so good at fighting, scavenging, and hunting. Men like them were bound to know what they were doing in this kind of situation. Luna… Luna was something completely different. Women like her weren’t supposed to know how to fight with swords, or kill without emotion. _Children_ like her. She never explained that she’d hit her nineteenth summer three weeks ago, and she had ceased to be a child right about the time she’d woken up at fourteen in a dungeon with her skin being flayed from her back.

            Luna still spoke only when she absolutely had to and she very rarely felt the need. Now that she was separated from the only ones who had known the girl she used to be, speaking words out loud seemed like a useless waste. Daryl walked toward her and raised his eyebrows, tucking a stinking hand under her chin to look at her face. She locked eyes with him and smiled. He nodded and went about gathering the rest of his arrows. Merle snorted and grabbed the canvas bag he’d dropped when the small herd had passed through and jerked open the car door. “Daylight ain’t waitin’, let’s move this party.”

            After another minute to gather herself, Luna hefted up her own bag from a few feet away and picked up where she left off on the opposite side of the road. It didn’t take them very much longer to pick the autos clean, shoving everything worth taking into the bags. This had been a small scavenging outing, mainly looking for gasoline for the generator and as backup fuel. Everything was fine for now, but in this world there was very little taken for granted. When it was all done, they piled into the back of the pickup and drove the fifteen miles back to the hillside where the rest of their group were camped. It was a good spot, Luna figured, at least for the time being. There was a water source and plenty of escape routes, while being elevated enough to keep watch for any intruders.

            Luna went straight to her tent as soon as they arrived, depositing her bag just inside while she immediately gathered supplies for bathing. After a moment, she twisted her braid into a bun at the back of her head and secured it with her wand, knowing that it was the safest spot for it right now. If she decided to wash her hair, she’d figure something else. When she stepped back out of her tent, Daryl was waiting for her, his own clothing in his arms. He’d known what she wanted without her having to say, and that said volumes about the connection they shared. It had developed quick and firm, the two of them forming a bond almost instantly.

            It wasn’t anything they discussed, and it baffled the hell out of the rest of the group, most of all Merle, who had never seen his brother get all bent out of shape over a woman before. The younger brother had taken an immediate shine to the girl the moment they’d found her bleeding out from a gunshot wound right outside of the cabin they’d taken refuge in a couple months after the world went to shit. Merle had been high out of his gourd, ready to just put another bullet through her brain and leave her there. Daryl had ignored him and carried her into the cabin.

            It had taken less than a day for her to wake up, scared and hurting. She hadn’t said anything then, either. It was as if her voice was frozen in her throat, taken hostage by finglesprites or something else equally debilitating. She’d gotten separated from her group, disoriented from the hail of gunfire that had erupted when they stumbled into something they weren’t prepared for. Muggle weapons hadn’t been easy to navigate for the purebloods, and the first time they’d been shot at had almost been the last, at least for Luna. She didn’t know what fate her comrades had encountered. The last thing she remembered before waking up in the care of the Dixons was Harry screaming her name as she instinctively apparated out. She had no idea where she was or how far she’d gone.

            The look in Daryl’s eyes when he watched her wake up was something she’d instinctively shied away from. It wasn’t pity or embarrassment, or even sympathy. It was understanding. In the process of cleaning her up and tending to the gunshot wound- the bullet had passed more or less harmlessly through her side- he’d had to undress her and he’d seen her scars. He didn’t ask about it, and she didn’t volunteer any information. He told her his name and said that his brother was Merle and a complete dick.

            It had taken nearly two more weeks for her to tell him her name, and by then they’d been forced to leave the cabin. She proved herself worth saving as she not only kept up with the brothers, but brought down wild game and foraged for edible plants. Once upon a time, it would have hurt her heart to kill an animal. But that was a long time ago and between the war and the plague, she’d changed. She still sent them off with a prayer to the old gods, and she honored them by not wasting, but she understood that their death was what made it possible for her to keep fighting.

            Now, as she made her way through the main camp to get to the trail leading down to the quarry, some of the other women called out softly. “Hey, Luna? You going for a bath? Mind some company? It’d be better if we went in a group.”

            Luna looked over at Daryl and smirked at his curled lip. He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “As long as you keep yer yaps shut and don’t draw any fuckin’ attention.”

            The sun was still a couple hours away from sinking below the horizon, so it really was the perfect time to bathe. The other women scrambled to gather their things and Luna waited patiently by the mouth of the trail. “I’ll come too,” Shane said, and followed Lori and her little boy toward their cluster of tents. Lori was another one that didn’t know exactly what to do with Luna. She’d tried to be friendly and even motherly toward her, but had been met with vague smiles and silence with every interaction. The overall consensus was that the slender young woman wasn’t exactly mentally fit. Maybe mute? She wasn’t deaf, but she didn’t communicate well. Luna had overheard the dark haired woman talking quietly with the other women about the possibility that Luna might be autistic. _“Not that it’s any of my business, but that’d explain a lot. The Dixons take care of her though, so it’s not a worry.”_

            She was used to people thinking she was daft, so it wasn’t much of an insult. There was even less of a need for her to speak to any of them after that, though. Let them think she was a mentally challenged mute; it didn’t change things. When Lori had started watching Daryl as if he was a sexual deviant after the nature of their relationship became apparent, that _had_ bothered Luna. The age difference seemed much larger than it actually was, but Luna figured it wasn’t her place to correct their assumptions.

            Soon the small group of women, children, and the two men were at the water. Luna casually pulled her wand and slipped behind Daryl to mutter a warming charm on the natural pool. It was just enough to take the bite out of it, not anything drastic. She held herself back with a bit of longing, a hot bath would be as close to heaven as she could imagine right at the moment. As an afterthought, she refreshed the protection wards she’d put up the day she and the Dixon brothers had come across the site. Nothing would be coming through tonight. At least none of the reanimated dead. Unfortunately, the wards didn’t exactly cover normal humans- not in an open space like this. If they were holed up in a building with four walls that could be considered a home, that would be much different.

            She considered her hair for a moment, then took the time to unravel her braid. There was never a guarantee that there would be another opportunity to wash it. You seized the moment when you could, or you regretted it later. It had grown since she’d left home and now the ends rested somewhere near the backs of her knees. She wondered if it would be wise to cut it, or to just let it be. She sighed at her idle thoughts, and disrobed without giving much consideration to the others around her. Nudity had never bothered her, and it had even less meaning these days. Bodies were bodies and as long as they were living and breathing, she didn’t really mind. She did keep her bra and panties on, for Daryl's sake. Even though he'd never said anything, she knew that having Shane see her completely bare would bother him. 

            The sisters, Amy and Andrea were both in their underclothes, keeping minimal modesty and dived into the water quickly, even though the two men present were very decidedly looking elsewhere. Carol, the sweet mother, was helping her daughter, then nervously stripping own to her own bra and panties. Luna’s eyes narrowed at the old bruising littering the older woman’s pale skin. Fingermarks on her upper arms and scrapes and scratches that had nothing to do with walkers. There were nearly healed welts across her back and Luna’s fingers twitched.

            Lori glanced distrustfully at Daryl before turning her back to strip down. Daryl wasn’t even looking at her, focusing instead on Luna and trying to be discreet in looking her over for injuries. Luna moved them a little further away from the main group and gestured for him to hand over his clothes. He raised his eyebrows questioningly and she rolled her eyes. “So I can wash them, silly,” she said quietly, her voice barely loud enough for his sharp hearing. She ignored the way his eyes softened at the sound of it and the slight tremor that went through him as he undressed and handed her the bloodied clothing, leaving his boxers on. He liked knowing that she only spoke to him, that the gentle, heavily British tones were usually for his ears alone.

            After a long hesitation, she left her shirt on the shore, hiding her wand inside and well within reach. Dropping the rest of their combined clothing into the pool of water just beyond the shoreline, she swished her hand into the mess and watched as conjured soap bubbled up. By the time they were done bathing, the fabric would be more or less clean and ready to hang to dry. She didn’t dare do anything flashier with everyone else around. No one else- except Merle- knew about her magic, and she intended to keep it that way.

            Once in the water, Luna ducked under and swam a little ways into the center, relishing the feel of the cool water against her skin. When she emerged, she saw that Shane and Carl had joined Lori in their own spot aside from the sisters and Carol, the other male being almost too careful about not being too close to Lori. It was a quiet scene, despite the numbers and the natural acoustics of the quarry. After a few minutes of swimming around, Luna came in closer so that her feet actually touched the rocks. When she was close enough, she transfigured two rocks into pieces of peppermint soap. Handing one to Daryl, she rubbed her own between her palms to make suds. She wondered what would have happened if they’d been there alone. Her stomach tingled as she remembered the last time he had put his hands on her. Of all the changes that had been forced on her since leaving the sanctity of home, discovering her sexuality had been one of the more pleasant ones.

            “Luna?” Startled out of her drifting thoughts, Luna looked over her shoulder at Amy and raised an inquiring brow. The other girl looked a bit sheepish and her cheeks were red as she asked, “We noticed you had soap and was wondering if you’d mind sharing? If not, it’s cool… It’s not really something that’s easy to come by. We were in such a hurry to go that we left ours at the camp. We can pay you back.”

            Luna’s smile was sweet as she simply broke the soap in half and handed it over. It wasn’t as if she was going to run out anytime soon. “Oh, thank you! Oh, God, you’re awesome.” Amy’s smile lit up her face and for a second it looked like she might actually hug Luna before she realized that they were both pretty much naked and it might not be welcome. She repeated her thanks and went back to the other women.

            “That was nice of ya,” Daryl murmured, his eyes dancing in amusement as his hands skimmed her waist under the water. Belly tightening, she stepped a little closer and ran her soapy hands over his chest and up to his neck. “We’d better not go there, little moon, not while we’ve got an audience, yeah?”

            Her smile turned wicked as she gripped the back of his hair and used him to pull herself up enough to press her lips to his. Before he could do anything else, she was gone, diving back into the water to rinse off. When she came back up for air, he was closer in to the shore, sitting in chest-high water and watching her. Looking at the rest of their group, she noticed that Shane was watching the two of them with a thoughtful expression. Despite whatever creepy vibe she got off him, he was a decent leader, she thought. She was vaguely reminded of Harry when he was first accepting the role the wizarding community had placed on his head when he was far too young. Shane was still learning the dynamics of the group, watching and cataloguing character quirks, seeing if they were all a good fit or not. He was looking for any sign of upcoming conflict. Just like Harry when he had first formed Dumbledore’s Army.

            She went toward the shore and stopped when the water was just under her ribs. It was time to wash her mess of hair. If she were alone, she would have just used a washing charm, much like she had with the clothes. It seemed easier said than done, using soap instead of shampoo, but her hair had always been thick and somewhat coarse, being picky about what kinds of products it liked. Right at the moment, with the cold water, it had matted up into a vicious tangle. Never really one for vanity, Luna still had a moment of yearning for Rosemerta’s hair elixir. The tavern owner had a surprisingly light hand with the magical cosmetics.

            “Need some help?” She startled and nearly lost her footing when she heard Lori speak, the other woman suddenly close enough to touch. “Woah, it’s all right. I saw you having some trouble with all that hair and I thought I’d offer a comb and maybe some help.” It was phrased like a question, and after a long moment, Luna relaxed and nodded. She noticed that Shane had joined Daryl near the shore despite the barely contained distain that seemed mutual when dealing with each other, and Carl was playing with Sophia, the two kids keeping their voices down in a learned caution. In a different life, it could have been a fun summer evening with a group of friends camping for the week. In a different life, Luna mused, she wouldn’t be here. She’d be well on her way to becoming one of the very few women magizoologists, traveling around the world discovering the hidden creatures most didn’t believe existed- much as her father had when he was young.

            The moment Lori noticed the scarring, Luna was drawn back to reality. There wouldn’t be any of that life for her now. “What happened to you, Luna,” the other woman asked, her voice stricken, but hushed. A trembling hand touched a particularly long and wide scar that ran from the crook of her neck, across her shoulders, and disappeared into the water near her hip. Luna closed her eyes and stepped away, the easy moment gone. Her hair was untangled now, the soapy mass ready to be rinsed. She disappeared into the water again, not answering.

            It was time to go back soon after that, and she dressed quickly, gathering her hair up in a twist with her wand. When it was time to head back to their tents, she could dry it. Daryl stopped her before they started back up, cupping her chin. “You good?”

            She nodded, but stepped into him for a moment, letting him hold her. It was over quickly, but the warmth followed her as they re-entered the circle of camp.

*~*~*


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) Thanks to everyone for the comments and kudos! Just as a quick head's up, there's dark themes coming up, and sexual content. I also took liberties with Luna's stay at Malfoy Manor, like a lot of liberties. If Luna seems out of character, it's because this is how I see her after surviving all the crap she has so far. Hopefully I don't go too out of bounds ;) Thanks for reading, and as always, positive feedback is greatly welcome!

*~*~*

 

            After dinner, Luna sat to the side, leaned against Daryl’s legs as she watched the fire dance. The lilt of conversation flowed around them and lulled her into a near trance. The fire sprites played merrily in the low flames, their hair flickering red, orange, and the occasional white-blue. Their laughter was the crackle and odd pop and she found herself mesmerized. She always did love to converse with the pretty little things, often staying awake far later than she should have to watch the hearth in the common room while she was at school. The other students never really understood, and it had taken her a few years to realize that they couldn’t see it. It had made her sad for them despite their mean words. Now that she’d been introduced to the concept of karma, she’d decided that that’s what it must have been. Besides, as the mermaids of the lake had told her once, what magical creature would want to show themselves to humans that were so cruel to someone different than they were? She thought that maybe Daryl would be able to see them if he really tried. She hadn’t felt safe enough to try just yet. Maybe in a quiet moment, she could guide him through it somehow.

            It made her feel better that the faefolk hadn’t deserted them, even if there wasn’t anyone else who really believed. It was enough that she could see them, she thought as her eyes started to drift closed. It had been a very long day and nights like these were few. The awful looming dread had eased here in the soft golden glow and there was a chance that she might actually fall asleep easily tonight. Tomorrow was a different day and it may not be as calm. There was talk of another scavenger party going out toward the city and she was planning on going. Merle had already volunteered, as had a small crew of others. Glenn hadn’t been too happy about them joining him; it was usually his job to slip in and back out again. He knew what he was doing and knew the city backwards and forwards. The poor boy had been railroaded into agreeing, throwing his hands up with a shake of his head.

            Daryl was staying behind, intending on taking a couple days to slip into the forest to hunt and bring back wild game to feed the huge group. There were at least two other families, most keeping to their own sites but slipping in and out as needed. The boys had already discussed it, but she was going to wait until the last minute to step forward. She knew that she needed to be in the numbers going in. Neither of them would be very happy with her, but there was little they could say or do to change her mind. Something bad was in the works, and she knew Merle was going to need someone to watch his back.

            She became aware of a creeping tension in the man sitting behind her and she started paying more attention to her surroundings. It wasn’t a habit of theirs to linger at the communal fire pit, but this evening Luna hadn’t wanted to be lurking on the outskirts. The dark was oppressive tonight and the soft murmurings of multiple conversations were soothing. Daryl’s grumbling sigh had been rewarded with a flash of brilliant silver eyes, a lingering smile, and a soft kiss. He’d settled in quietly then, sitting on a blanket she’d laid out in front of the log someone had pulled up, leaning his back against the rough wood. When he pulled her to rest between his legs, she’d gone happily and pressed another kiss to the scruffy underside of his chin.

           Lori was talking to Shane, the dark haired woman glancing over at her more than what was necessary during their conversation. As if that was going to make him any less obnoxious. Luna sighed and leaned her head back to look up at Daryl, who was watching the fire pit just to the side of theirs. He peered down at her and she saw the glint of anger in his eyes that he immediately tried to hide. A muffled cry of pain caught her ears and she looked over to where Carol and her daughter were dealing with her husband. It wasn’t in Luna’s nature to be confrontational, she’d always been the one to stand back until there was no other choice. Those days had long since been beaten out of her, and there was a reason she was usually content to stay on the outskirts the way the boys preferred. It was easier to ignore the problems of others if she wasn't there to see it.

            She was up and across the space too quickly for anyone to stop her. Despite the fact that she hadn’t always been the most athletic of students, she’d always been fast. She’d only gotten faster with age. She leapt over the stack of firewood separating their two circles and darted in between the heavy handed man and Carol. Blinding pain exploded in the side of her head as she took the blow meant for the older woman that had always been so nice to her. Everything went hazy and wild, her heartbeat skipping and roaring in her ears. In the blink of an eye, she was back in the dark, hearing the sounds of flesh hitting flesh. _Hannah Abbot calling out in pain as the lash caught her across her pretty cheek, Mr. Ollivander gagging as booted feet caught him across the ribs._ Maddening laughter rang in her ears, and with a snarl of rage, Luna had a stunned Ed Peltier on the ground. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth and she was drawing back for another blow when she was pulled away. Shane had her around the waist, hauling her back, and she let out a chilling shriek and twisted in his arms, using the defensive moves Bill and George Weasley had taught her in the lull of the summer after the final battle.

            In seconds, Shane was on his knees, out of breath and cradling his injured manhood. Blindly she retreated, scuttling back when Lori tried to go to her, seeing Bellatrix’s hateful sneer as she readied her wand for a _cruciatus_ curse. “No, no,” she said, shaking her head as her back collided with a stray camp chair. Past and present melded and became a confusing mix when Daryl reached her and pulled her up. She struggled for a moment, whining at the back of her throat when he pinned her arms to her sides and carried her away from the ruckus.

            “Luna! It’s all right, darlin’,” the warm drawl was close to her ear and she shook her head, managing to get a hand between their chests. “It’s me, yer safe, ain’t nobody gonna hurt ya. Not now. Yer safe.”

            Her head ticked to the side and she gasped when things clicked back into place. Horrified, she looked at him, then over to the rest of the group, who were watching them as if she had grown a second head. “Oh,” she whispered. Tears welled and she buried her head in his chest and trembled. “I thought I was in the dark again.”

            “Yer with me,” he murmured against the top of her head, loosening and shifting his grip so that he was holding instead of restraining.

            “What was that about?” Andrea demanded as soon as everyone was more or less on their feet again. “Luna? You okay?”

            “Is _she_ okay? Fuck, the bitch went fucking crazy,” Ed shouted, cradling his ruined face. He swatted viciously at Carol, who was trying to check out the damage. “All I was doing was taking my fucking wife back to our goddamn-”

            “You should shut yer fuckin' mouth, sumbitch,” Merle cut in harshly and Luna was surprised to see that the elder Dixon was standing between her and the other men. He’d been off doing something else, having disappeared right around dusk. He must have heard the commotion and came running. “We all know what you were doin’.”

            “Everyone needs to calm down,” Dale stepped forward, holding his hands out in a placating manner, looking around at the darkness just on the outskirts of the firelight. “We’re making a lot of noise here.”

            “Fuck you, old man,” Ed snarled, then pointed a bloodied finger toward Luna. “You’d better watch your back, bitch. There’ll be a time when these fuckwads won’t be around.”

            “Try it,” Luna snarled, her normally placid features twisted with fury. “I have faced much more frightening things than you.”

            “Enough,” Lori said sharply, “Ed, you go cool off. Carol, you and Sophia stay right here. Shane, you all right?”

            “Fuck you, I’m not listening to a cu-,” Ed’s voice was cut off when T-Dog and Merle moved in, for once on the same side.

            “Dude, I suggest you listen and go cool off,” T- Dog said in an even voice that booked no room for arguments while Merle snarled and looked as if he were about to throw some punches himself. “We’ve had enough shit for the night.”

            Lori squatted down next to Shane and repeated her question, “You okay?” Shane’s face had lightened a few shades from the near purple and he nodded, still unable to form words. She looked up at the young woman standing in the protective embrace of the redneck hillbilly. She didn’t think she’d ever seen the girl so shook up before. Her face was so sickly pale it seemed like she would crumple if it hadn’t been for Daryl holding her up, and the eyes that stared back at her were huge and nearly black. “Luna, are you okay?”

            Luna nodded and flinched back when Daryl touched her already bruising jawline. “I’m fine,” she said quietly. “Nothing I haven’t faced before.” That disturbed them, she realized, and averted her gaze. Her temper, while not easy for her to find, was slow to recede. Her skin felt too hot and too small, everything far too big and real and loud.

            “I would like to retreat to my tent now.”

            “We need to-,” Shane started to argue, getting unsteadily to his feet with Lori's help but was cut off when Daryl fixed him with a dark glare.

            “It can wait till mornin’,” Merle jumped in, full of even more surprises. He was usually the one to instigate and poke at things until they exploded, then laughing at the chaos. He looked ready to pummel anyone who tried to stop them. “No need hashin’ it out now.”

            “Fine.” Not sounding entirely happy, Shane still conceded the point. He bent over and just breathed, trying not to adjust himself in front of everyone. “Tomorrow’ll be good enough.”

*~*~*

_“I bet you don’t know why you’re here.” The voice was sing-song and almost gentle as it mocked her from inches away from her face. “Poor ikle loon, probably retreated to a safe place, just waiting for the pain…” Luna kept her eyes closed and relied on her years of ignoring bullies to keep the terror at bay. The foul mouth came close to her own and she could feel the fetid breath on the skin of her lips._

_“I’ll give you the pain, darling.” Bile rose at the back of her throat, but Luna swallowed it back and took in a deep, steady breath as she waited for it. Lips touched her cheek and she could feel the surprisingly soft touch of Bellatrix’s hair as the older woman slid her face along hers. She couldn’t hide the shudder that flittered through her when a cold hand ghosted along her bare arms and chest, sliding down to slip across her hip and belly. She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and braced herself._

_A gasp of breath as fingers slid into that most secret place. She didn’t make a sound, not even as ragged fingernails dug into tender flesh, bruising and tearing. Bellatrix moved away with a mad cackle and Luna heard the low mumble of voices exchanged. A deep grumble of a voice intermixed and infiltrated her mind, the familiar drawl making the flesh of her stomach ripple with unease._

_Cruel laughter, the sound of robes being shifted, then there was the heavy weight settling in over her. Large, cold hands gripped and shoved her thighs apart and the voice of someone she’d trusted growled in her ear, “It will be over soon, Lovegood. Just a bit longer.”_

            Luna came awake with a sobbing gasp, pushing at the arms that had held her in the night. “No, stop,” she whimpered and got her legs untangled from the blankets, finally wresting herself out of the bedroll. She scooted back several inches before she realized that she wasn’t _there_ anymore, that the face staring back at her through the early light of dawn wasn’t Bellatrix Lestrange, or the man that had raped her in lieu of his counterparts. Man? Boy? She didn’t know how to think of her classmate. She’d faced him after the Dark Lord was defeated and she’d known why he’d done it. She’d known while he was rutting into her on the damp stone floor of his family manor. He had considered it a mercy. It didn’t make it any better.

            “Lu?” Daryl’s voice was hoarse from sleep as he slowly climbed out of the bedding and came to kneel in front of her. “It’s all right, darlin’, just a dream.”

            She shook her head, feeling the throbbing of her head. Her jaw ached and she felt tears spilling down her hot cheeks. “Never just a dream,” she whispered brokenly. “They come in the night and bring horrible things. I need to plant iron spikes to keep them away, they are not polite.”

            “Come here,” Daryl told her softly and reached for her. She went to him, even though the thought of being touched made her skin crawl. When his arms were around her and they were sitting on the floor of the tent, she felt everything swirl quickly, then stop. He smelled like leather, sweat, and faintly of the peppermint soap they’d washed with the night before. Luna shuddered and pressed her face into his neck and breathed him in.

            She hadn’t told him about her past. He knew of her magic, and he knew of her scars and night terrors, but he didn’t know their origin. He knew that she had friends like her that she’d been separated from, and he knew that she wasn’t necessarily on the right side of grounded all of the time. She saw things no one else could, and he never thought less of her for it. Some things just were, and some people just saw more than others. His Ma had been like that, before his old man had beaten it out of her. Some things didn’t need to be said for him to understand.

            “Ya don’t have to say nothin’ to nobody,” he told her then, speaking into her hair as he unconsciously rocked them back and forth. It was a soothing gesture as much for him as for her. She felt her heart expand in her chest and she wondered at the feeling. There had been times with others that she’d felt a similar swelling, but this was different. Luna wondered what her father would think of him. An added stab of pain came at the thought of her father and the last time she’d seen him. She’d been the one to put the blade through his brainstem and put the flame to the pyre.

            She leaned back and brought their mouths together in an attempt to get rid of the taste of fear and dark. His hands came up under her hair, fingers entwining in it as he breathed her in. Soon, there was nothing left but the two of them. As he laid her down on their shared blankets, he touched her so gently she wanted to weep from it. Work roughened hands eased over silky skin and worshipped every inch of her, and when she used her legs to flip them, he went with it and looked up at her with heavy-lidded eyes. He bit his lip to stop the groan that tried to escape as she sank down and took him in.

            She rode him with a hard rhythm that shook his very core. When her hips stuttered and she threw back her head with a near soundless cry, his fingers bit into her skin at the sensation of her clamping down around him. He pushed her into the pallet then, sinking into her again and again, hard and fast, bringing out those quiet, breathless gasps that always pushed him right to the edge. Her slender legs wrapped around his waist, ankles hooking at his spine as they both spiraled into release.

            When he tried to roll off her, to avoid crushing her with his weight, she held him there. “Just a few moments longer,” she murmured and smiled when he stroked her face and pressed kisses to her forehead and cheeks. This was a part of him that no one else had ever seen, she mused. He was like one of those rare creatures so misunderstood as to be classified dangerous or forbidden. Instead of frightening her, it made her feel safe.

*~*~*

            “You okay this mornin’?” The question was asked the moment Shane found her alone. It was early and the brothers had each gone their different way to do a quick patrol of the area surrounding the campsite. She’d just pulled the kettle off the dying embers of their own fire, and held it with an ancient potholder as she hesitated for a long moment. With a sigh, she set the kettle down again and dug out a second mug. She measured out tea into the large teapot she’d made sure stayed within reach, then silently poured the hot water.

            She took a seat in the camp chair nearby and gestured for him to take the other. Her time of silence seemed to be over, she mused. Too bad it hadn’t lasted until after her first cup of tea. “There’s no reason to worry, sir,” she answered finally and saw his surprise at her very polite, very British answer. No doubt he’d been expecting a heavy southern backwoods drawl like the Dixons.

            “Where did you learn to fight like that?”

            She eyed him through the curtain of her hair and looked away and into the softly hissing embers in the pit. “No offence, sir, but I would rather not speak of it. It’s private and not necessary knowledge.” The tea had steeped long enough, she decided and gracefully rose to pour. When she handed him the second mug, he murmured a polite thanks. She watched Lori picking her way through the trees and bit back the urge to retreat. This was something that had to happen, she supposed, and it would have sooner or later.

            “I’d like to understand your background,” Shane started slowly, trying to choose his words carefully. Her grip tightened on her mug and she fought to lock down her emotions again. It was more difficult than it should have been, and Luna resented it. The older man sighed and looked at her with a combination of worry and compassion. “I need to know that you’re not going to be… triggered… by things. And if you are, I need to know what… _we_ need to know what, and how to deal with the fallout. You can fight, and fight well for your age and size.”

            Luna was silent for a long time, and when she felt Daryl come back into the circle of their camp, she stared at him for a long moment. If it had been anyone else, this knowledge may have changed things between them. She’d wanted to tell him one on one, to confess the awfulness, to say it out loud for the first time when it was only them. He watched her with eyes gone the color of slate, and she knew that he wouldn’t look at her differently, no matter what she said. She took her tea and lowered herself into the canvas chair, drawing her knees up to her chest, even as she cradled the steaming liquid. Daryl stood behind her chair and she felt a little of the tension ease just at his closeness. Lori stood uncertainly for a moment, before taking the seat next to Shane.

           “When I was fourteen, I was kidnapped on my way home for the holidays. There were four of us taken, all of them from my compartment. Hannah Abbot, Cho Chang, and Susan Bones. A local craftsman was also taken, as was one of our local bankers. When we were rescued a month later, I was the only one from Hogwarts that survived.” She closed her eyes and remembered that day, sitting in the compartment with the few people she could call casual friends. At casual friends, she meant that they tolerated her presence and talked around her as if she were invisible. Somehow it hurt more knowing that if it hadn’t been for their kindness, they may have been safe. Susan may not have been, seeing that she was the niece of Madam Bones, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and taking her had been a major coup against the ministry. The Death Eaters had been all too gleeful in breaking the girl, their torment made even sweeter by the fact that it hadn’t taken much. _“Pity. A waste of perfectly good blood. The Noble House of Bones would be ashamed of you, poppet. I’d bet Auntie dear would’ve lasted longer.”_

            “Why were you taken,” it was Lori that asked as she took the cup Shane had passed her. He’d taken a testing sip of the dark liquid and had been disappointed when its flavor was decidedly not coffee.

            “There was a civil war happening in the area I lived,” Luna started, having already thought over the best way to inform without going into too many details. She drew on the information Harry had provided her through the years of muggle history. They could understand a civil war and how serious it was without having to dive into complicated details. “A very bad man was trying to come into power over our community and his followers were very ruthless in assisting him while our government was resisting even acknowledging him as a threat. There was a lot of old money and old prejudice in place. There was a lot of bloodshed and a lot of innocent people were hurt. My father... my father owned a newspaper that was very vocal in bringing attention to it. He called on people to stop being so ignorant and to stand up for what was right. They took me as a lesson to him, and to make a point.”

            “Did…” Shane hesitated before finishing his question, “Did they stop him?”

            “Yes,” Luna said, and felt Merle come into the clearing and hesitate uncertainly. She looked over Shane’s shoulder at him and when her smile trembled, he cursed viciously and came in to crouch down next to her chair, leveling a glare at the former cop and his arrogant bitch of a girlfriend. He’d known it was going to come to this- them hounding their Luna for information the girl didn’t want to give up.

            Daryl hid a smile behind a cough. It amused him that his woman took comfort in his brother’s obnoxious presence. And it was just as funny that his brother was nearly as attached to the girl as he was. Luna knew that Merle was more than just a foul mouth and bad temper. It seemed like his bad attitude was what she liked about him.

            “He and his followers laid siege to my school where, after several weeks, they were defeated.”

            “They took over a school? Why wasn’t this in the news? Even in England, there must have been international media coverage,” Lori asked, looking a bit incredulous. She thought that maybe the girl was making things up to avoid talking about the real root of her trauma, which was most likely an abusive situation that had gone too far for too long. Her heart broke for the young woman that looked barely old enough to be out of high school. She was an odd one that didn't seem to have all her wits. Whatever the real reason was, it was bad enough to crack her sense of reality.

            “We were a very secular society,” Luna informed her, eyes going a bit sharp. “My school was located in the wilds of Scotland, and if our own government wouldn’t acknowledge the problem, why would the mass media across the ocean? Believe me or not, it isn’t my prerogative to make you. I was asked for background just in case of further ‘triggers’. The truth of it is, I was held and tortured in a very dark place for three weeks. I heard my classmates being beaten and raped and then killed one by one. I still hear their screams and I can taste… I can taste mold and madness at the back of my tongue if I think on it too long. If you don’t mind, I would much rather not speak of it.”

            She stood up and turned her back, going toward her tent. She heard Shane get to his feet and froze when he said, “Luna, I’m sorry. This was stuff we needed to know.”

            Shoulders hunched, Luna unzipped her tent and went inside, waving her hand for it to zip back up. Kneeling in front of her trunk, she pulled out the short sword that she rarely left behind. It had been a present from Neville right after they’d left the wizarding world for the last time. He’d worried about her not having a proper weapon that wasn’t her wand. Seamus had also given her a sharp stiletto dagger that had been in his family for centuries. She cherished both, knowing that the men had come a very long way since their younger years at Hogwarts.

            Neville had always had potential for great courage and valor, she’d seen it from the first time she’d met him and his unfortunate toad when he’d been six, and she’d been five. His gran and her parents had been on friendly terms and it had been their idea for them to be socialized somewhat. It had also been a not-so-secret wish of theirs for the two younglings to eventually go into a betrothal contract. They had remained friendly once they were in school, though their friendship had stayed rather vague up until Harry had… until Harry.

            Not much surprised her, but Seamus had. The Irish-born wizard was brash and mouthy, something that hadn’t really changed. What had changed was his adaptability. The boy that had made fun of her at every turn because she was something that didn’t fit his view of ‘normal’ had become one of her best friends and biggest advocates.

            Her heart ached so badly it was an actual physical pain in her chest. She rubbed absently at her sternum as she just knelt on the floor of the tent for a long time, staring blankly into the depths of her bottomless trunk. She wondered where they were and what they were doing- if they were safe or warm, or hungry. She felt Daryl come inside and close the tent flap behind him, and waited for him to come to her.

            When he went to his knees behind her, she melted back into him and closed her eyes. He pressed his face into the side of her head and she could feel his steadiness seep into her. “I believe you must be part elf, my love,” she whispered with a half-smile. “They are very well grounded. You make me feel steadier.”

            “I ain’t got no pointy ears, little moon,” he growled, but she could feel his smile. “You good?”

            “I’m fine. Just longing for what’s missing.” When he turned her to face him, she went willingly. When he looked down into her eyes, she let him see.

            “When yer ready, tell me 'bout what happened, yeah?”

            She nodded and tucked herself into him for a long moment. “It’s not a good place, Daryl. Not a place I want to be, and not a place I want to bring you. We have enough darkness as it is, I don’t want to dwell in dungeons.”

            As she allowed him to cup her face in his callused hands and kiss her so sweetly, Luna wanted nothing more than to stay right there with him forever. In the world before, their paths never would have crossed. Rough and barely educated, Daryl Dixon was far from the elitist society she’d grown up in. Not that she or her father had ever conformed to her society’s standards in the first place. She also knew that before all of this had happened, she would never have been someone Daryl would have found attractive. She’d changed from the soft and strange girl she had been. The optimistic and happy child was gone, and in her place was a cool and quiet woman that wasn’t afraid of blood and death. She did what needed to be done to survive, and to keep her loved ones safe.

            “Merle’s probably waiting for us,” she murmured breathlessly when his hands wandered a little too far south.

            “He can wait.”

*~*~*


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is a bit on the short side. :) Thanks to everyone reading this, and I promise that there's going to be more of the HP characters coming up very, very soon. Any ideas on pairings for our boys? (Harry, Neville, Seamus, and possible Draco) Lol, I usually just let these things hash themselves out as I write, but I'm kinda blocked beyond Daryl/Luna.

*~*~*

        “What? No.” As predicted, Daryl wasn’t happy with her volunteering to go with the team being sent in to scavenge for supplies. They were standing near the van they were planning on taking into the city, Glenn and the others hovering and eyeballing them nervously. Andrea had a smirk on her face as she watched the normally quiet girl go toe to toe with the gruff redneck. ”This ain’t up for arguin’, Lu. You ain’t goin’.”

        Merle tossed a canvas bag of tools and weapons into the back of the van where the seats had already been removed to make room for whatever supplies they may find. The whole purpose of bringing a team in was to get more loot, so they didn’t have to keep sending the boy in so often. He chuckled and patted Luna’s butt as he passed. “I’ll take care of her, baby brother, no worries.”

        “You shut the fuck up.” Daryl angrily jabbed a finger in his brother’s direction and grabbed Luna’s wrist to drag her away and out of earshot of the others. “I don’t like it.”

        “You don’t have to like it,” she told him calmly. “I’m needed.”

        “Like hell ya are,” Daryl snapped back, “They’re perfectly capable of takin’ care of themselves. Too many people’s a hazard, Lu, and ya know it.”

        “You’re hurting my arm,” she murmured and smiled when he immediately loosened his grip and transferred it to clasp both of her elbows, cradling her arms. “I understand you’re frightened of something happening to me. But I need to be there. Something is going to go wrong, and I need to be there to minimize the damage.”

        “And knowin’ that’s gonna make me wanna let ya go?”

        He was so angry he was nearly vibrating with it. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen him this upset, and it wouldn’t be the last. She brought her hands up to cup his face and rubbed her thumbs over his cheeks tenderly. Then she brought his mouth down to hers. He was still for a moment before clamping his hands over her waist and dragging her in, deepening the kiss in a rare public display. When he drew back with a small growl, he rested his forehead against hers and drew in a ragged breath. “I don’t want ya to go.”

        “I know,” she whispered. “But I have to. Merle may not make it back otherwise, and you can’t forbid both of us from going.”

        “Then I’ll go.”

        “That wouldn’t work either, Daryl. Please, trust me.”

        He stared down at her for a long time before nodding. “Fine. But I’ll kick yer pretty ass if ya get hurt.”

        “I count on it.” She kissed him again, hard, and pulled away to grab her own backpack, which had been spelled with an endless capacity and a weightless charm. She started to go back toward the waiting group, who were all trying to hide wide, amused grins. He spun her around one more time and hefted her up into a heated embrace that stole her breath and heated her blood. When he pulled back this time, there was something else in his eyes. In the background, she could hear low whistles and catcalls, the others keeping their voices down out of habit.

        “I know,” she repeated, and pressed her lips to his again, “Me too.” And with that, she wiggled until he set her on her feet and went back to climb in the waiting van.

        “Merle, if anythin’ happens to her, I’ll-”

        “I know, brother, I know,” Merle waved his hand, but fixed Daryl with a serious stare before jumping into the van behind Luna.

        Watching them drive back down the winding mountain road was making his stomach ache, so Daryl turned to gather his hunting gear. As much as he wanted to hang out around camp to keep an ear out for the radio, it wasn’t efficient. They’d be gone at least a day, probably coming back sometime tomorrow afternoon. The whole thing left a bad taste in his mouth. On his way back to his tent, he nearly ran into Lori, who was actually looking at him as if he were a human being for once.

        “She’ll be fine,” she started, but Daryl didn’t stop to listen, just gave her a rude once over and stepped around. He didn’t want any fucking platitudes from a woman that barely stuck her neck out for anything. Why the hell should she care about Luna, or Merle now? He’d overheard the conversations about them when she and the others thought they couldn’t be overheard. Speculating on Luna’s mental state, discussing how she must be a non-verbal autistic, and how sick it was that Daryl was taking advantage of the poor thing. God, the very idea of it made him want to puke.

        No, he didn’t need platitudes from the likes of Lori. She needed to clean up her own bullshit before nosing in on anyone else’s.

*~*~*

        Luna spotted him first, the man in the hat, riding a horse of all things into the thick of the city. _And so it starts_. She nudged Morales and indicated the figure coming in from the east side, coming directly toward the mess of broken vehicles, abandoned muggle military contraptions Merle had explained were called tanks, and wall to wall walkers.

        “Shit,” the tall Hispanic spat and turned to Glenn and the others. Luna only listened with half an ear as she watched the fool come closer. She saw the dead lift their faces to the air and sniff like animals, catching the scent of living flesh and blood. They started out shambling, some of them falling over themselves in their haste, then they gained momentum and seemed to propel each other forward as a murderous blob of rot.

        Tears sprang to her eyes at the shrill sound of panic and pain that erupted from the beautiful beast and she had her wand in her hand without thinking of the consequences. She shot off a killing curse, her aim perfect as she took the poor thing out of its misery. As it collapsed, she saw the man somehow duck under and through the mass of arms and legs. When he was clear, she calmly twisted her wand back in through her hair, securing it firmly. That was enough of that. She wouldn’t bring it back out again unless she absolutely had to.

        When she tuned back in, most of the others were gone, leaving her with Merle to keep a look out from the roof. The older Dixon had the radio clipped to his belt, and was raising the shotgun up to his shoulder to take aim. “Stop,” she ordered sharply, and he hesitated, giving her a squinted glare. “The fuck? I was just gonna clear the way for our cowboy out there.”

        “Don’t be foolish, Merle,” she said and joined him on the ledge, looking down. “Sound draws them in, right? Let the others do what they do, and we can step in if we have to.”

        “Fuck. I really wanna do some damage.” There was something off with his behavior, Luna noted immediately. He was jittery and moving firmly toward belligerent. He ran a shaking hand under his nose and she inhaled sharply.

        “Where did you get it?” Her voice was sharper than he’d ever heard it. Even angry, Luna normally kept things at a gentle, almost breathless cadence. Her eyes snapped now as she looked him over and he had the presence of mind to feel ashamed. “Please, don’t lie to me.”

        “Always fuckin’ polite, ain’t ya?” Merle stalked away a few feet, the shotgun held over his shoulder, then turned on his heel and glared at her. He’d been sober for months, the fucking apocalypse making that easy. But when they’d been going through the cars the last time, he’d found a stash that he’d pocketed. He’d taken a hit just before Luna decided to invite herself along. If he’d known she was coming, he never would’ve done it. He would’ve waited. Now, she knew, and she was looking at him with those huge silvery blue eyes of hers brimming with a deadly mix of anger, concern, and disappointment. He hadn’t felt like a chastised schoolboy since he’d been in grade school. That awful feeling made him more aggressive. “Even now yer pissed, yer brimmin’ with fuckin’ manners. You polite when my brother’s nailin’ ya to the-”      

         “I will hex you to next year if you keep speaking to me like that.” That brought him up short. “I don’t care that you found your inner idiot, we can fix this. But I’d like to get us out of here alive.”

        “I liked ya better when ya didn’t talk.”

        “I liked you better when you weren’t a prat.” Luna turned her back on him to look down at the progress below. Gunshots rang out, the figure below opening fire on the walkers in an ignorant show of bravado that would save his life for a few minutes, but bring hell down on all of them. She felt a tug in her belly and knew that she needed to be downstairs. In a moment of foresight, she cast a temporary silencing charm on Merle’s shotgun, knowing that he would start firing the moment she was out of sight. Without another word, she ducked into the stairwell and bolted down.

        Running through the storefront, she shot off a reinforcing charm at the pressurized glass. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it would buy them enough time to get out. This was the exact reason why she hated the statute of secrecy keeping her from being open with her magic. Though Luna was positive that the Ministry was pretty much ashes like the rest of her society, she still felt the tug of restriction. Only in cases of absolute necessity was it appropriate to reveal herself. The witch trials were a very real part of the muggle _and_ wizarding past. In times like these, it would be very easy for the survivors to find a scapegoat and it had been proven time and time again that witches made excellent targets.

She got there in time to skid to a stop right behind Andrea holding a firearm to the new guy’s head. She was shaking and looked like she was going to break at any minute. “You’ve fucking killed us all. There’s no way we’re getting out of here now.”

        Luna took a breath, then stepped in and efficiently took the pistol away from the violently shaking woman. “We’ll figure it out, Andrea. This is just wasting time.” Everyone stared at her as if she’d been switched out with someone else entirely. “Glenn, you know the ins and outs of this city, yes?”

        Blinking, the Asian youth swallowed hard before nodding. “Yeah.”

        Before they could continue, the silencing charm on the shotgun ended and the echoing cracks of gunfire echoed through the building. “Oh, Christ! Is that Dixon?” Morales rubbed his hand over his face and looked like he wanted to scream. They started for the stairwell at a run, Luna holding back to take up the rear. “The fuck did you leave him alone for?”

        Luna ignored him, her mind going over their options. If only she could openly use her magic, she could clear the way. By the time they got to the roof and her addled friend, she had a rough plan. He was actually going to help her save their lives and he hadn’t a clue.

        Everyone filed into the roof, their focus on Merle. Luna grabbed Glenn’s hand and pulled him back into the stairwell landing. “What? Luna?”

        “I need your help,” she said softly, “And I need you to keep a secret. Not necessarily in that order, mind.”

*~*~*

       


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone reading this! It took me forever to work past this chapter. I had no freaking clue how to get it to work, but I hope I accomplished something worth reading ;)

 

*~*~*

        Luna stared out at the gathering of reanimated dead and felt her heart skip a bit faster. This all had to be done with impeccable timing, otherwise it would be a futile attempt that could kill them all. She wished that she could just banish them, but that’s not the way that spell worked. She maybe could to one or two, but that would have to be done one at a time, and they just didn’t have the time for it. She looked at Glenn, who seemed a bit unsure. He was watching her like she belonged in St. Mungo’s psychiatric ward.

        She took a steadying breath and raised her wand. Once she started this, there was no going back, and she had to move fast. “Are you sure we shouldn’t have everyone else here for this? We can all move faster as a group and get to safety without going back upstairs to gather people.”

        Luna paused and looked at him again. He had a point. Even if he didn’t believe that she was capable of what she claimed, he was trying to do what was best. Or maybe he just wanted someone else there in case she fucked it all up and brought the dead in quicker. Either way, he was well within his rights to be unsure. She lowered her wand. Revealing herself to the others wasn’t the smartest personal choice she had, but she figured if it became a problem, she could always erase their memories of what she’d done. That thought came as a nasty surprise to her. There was a time when Luna would have never considered such things. She was a firm believer in not meddling.

        She shook her head and sighed, “You’re right, let’s go.”

        When they darted back up the stairs, Luna came skidding to a halt, watching the newcomer holding Merle in a chokehold, speaking to him in a harsh, cold whisper. “What’s this,” she demanded, seeing Morales holding his hand up to his bleeding nose and T-Dog slowly picking himself up off the concrete platform. “Merle?”

        “Hey there Moongirl,” Merle grinned over at her despite his reddening face. The blood from his busted lip and broken nose flooded over his mouth, making it a horrid grimace. His voice was choked and for a moment Luna froze. “A little help here, darlin’?”

        “Looks like you got in this situation on your own merit, Merle,” she murmured, fingering her wand in contemplation. At the last minute, the newcomer let go with a shove that made the older man stumble and nearly fall.

        “Look, we don’t have time for this,” Andrea said, eyeing the men with fearful distain. “We need to figure a way to get out of here, and quick. Officer Idiot over there brought the entire fucking city to our door.”

        Luna stood silent for another long moment and then turned to Merle. “Sit down.” The command in her voice startled everyone, but it startled them more that the angry redneck actually sat. He rubbed at his throat and glared as he planted himself on the raised edge of the roof.

        “I have a plan to get us out,” Luna continued in that hard, not-quite-Luna tone. She raised her hand when the arguments tried to start. “Enough. Glenn and I are going to go downstairs. I would like for you all to go into the back bay where the deliveries are made and wait for the signal. Take a half hour to gather what supplies you can from the storefront, but be there and ready.”

        “But, honey, you can’t go by yourself,” Jaqui tried, stepping toward the two youngest with an expression of worried doubt.

        “I’m not, Glenn is coming with me,” Luna stated, then turned to Glenn and asked, “Are you ready?”

        He looked a little like he was going to be sick, but he nodded. “Guys, please, listen to her. We’ll have this covered, but to make it work, you have to follow what we’ve got. If everyone scatters, then we’ll never make it.”

        “Care to enlighten everyone of this miracle plan,” the man in the uniform asked, raising an eyebrow. “If we know what it is, then we’re less likely to muck it up.        

         “Good point,” Luna conceded blandly, “but no, there's no time, and I can't trust you.”

        She gripped a surprised Glenn’s hand and tugged him toward the stairwell. She hesitated, then turned back, “Does anyone know how to drive one of the large muggle tucks?”

         Merle snorted a half-chuckle, shaking his head, “Trucks, Moongirl. They’re called trucks.”

         Morales raised his hand uncertainly, “I used to drive delivery. Why?”

        “Come along, then.” Luna continued tugging Glenn behind her, trusting that Morales would follow. “Remember, half an hour.”

*~*~*

        It was more like forty minutes, but Luna had the doors open and ushering everyone into the back of the cargo van while Glenn was screaming out through the streets in the hotwired sports car. She knew there’d be questions about her magic when they were back in the safety zone, but figured it was worth it to make sure everyone got out safe. If they reacted badly, it was probably time for her and the boys to make their exit anyway.

        “Where’s Merle,” Luna demanded the moment T-Dog jumped into the back of the van and they started pulling out. The door was being slammed shut and she didn’t see the oldest Dixon.

        “He’s still up there, I couldn’t-”

        Luna looked like she was going to punch him, but she recoiled just in time. “Luna, he’s gone crazy,” Andrea said, “You saw him up there. There’s not much we can… Even if we went back for him, he’s not in any shape to get out. He’d get us all killed, it’s not worth it.”

        Mouth pressed into a firm, angry line, Luna pulled the long wooden hairstick out of her braid and disappeared with a loud _crack_ , leaving the remaining members of their group staring at empty space with open mouths.

        She reappeared on the rooftop, staring down at the man she’d come to consider a brother. He was sunburned and hoarse from screaming, his right wrist a bloody mess from pulling at the handcuff still secured to the pipe. It took a second for her to unlock the cuff and pull him upright. Rooting around in her pack, she pulled out a bottle of water and held it to his lips. After he drank his fill, she upended it over his head. Spluttering, he scrubbed at his face and stared at her with bloodshot eyes. “You came back for me.”

        “Of course I did, you idiot,” she said, still angry. “First rule of DA, don’t leave anyone behind. Well, I guess that would be the second rule, as the first is to do everything you can to not get hexed into insanity or killed. I don’t have anything left in this world, Merle. You and Daryl are the only ones that I consider family, everyone else is dead or missing. Do you really think I would just leave you behind?”

        He didn’t answer, but swallowed down the emotion that threatened to choke him. Before he knew what was happening, she was slipping her hand under his shirt and pressing her palm against his heart. He opened his mouth to demand to know what she was doing, but was stopped by a harsh, “Shh.” Then she placed the palm of her other hand against his forehead and started muttering words that he had no hope of ever following or understanding.

        The points of contact where her flesh met his started to get warm, very warm. Warm enough that he started to squirm after a couple minutes. His body ached, feeling like something was being pulled out of him, starting with his skin, then drawing deeper and deeper until it was bone deep. Soon, it hurt to even draw breath, it was worse than anything else he had ever endured- and he’d been in some rough spots. After what felt like forever, it stopped and he was left gasping for air in the aftermath.

        When he opened his eyes, his vision was clear and he felt different. Clean, inside and out, his entire being felt lighter than he could ever remember. Luna had lost whatever color she’d had, and she looked sick and about to keel over. “Christ, woman,” he cursed as she slumped forward, unconscious. “The fuck did ya do?”

*~*~*

       Daryl heard the scream of the alarm as the idiot Asian boy flew into the campground as if he were a drag racer coming in hot to the finish line. He wasn’t too far away, keeping as close to the radio as possible, just in case there was news. He fucking hated feeling this way. He was used to worrying about one thing or another; with a childhood as rough as his, there’d been plenty to fret over. But he’d never worried over _someone_ the way he worried over that little slip of a woman. Not since he’d been nearly too young to remember, scared shitless that Ma was gonna slip away in the night to leave him alone with his Pa. All that hadn’t got him nothing but a stomachache and the certainty that shit happened no matter how hard you wished it didn’t.

        He slung the string of rabbits and squirrels he’d managed to bring down over his shoulder and started back. Once he saw for himself that his girl was safe, then he’d go back out deeper this time, looking for something bigger, maybe drag her out with him. Depositing the kills near the RV, he silently sided up next to Glenn as they watched the fuckbrain cop rip the alarm cables out, shooting off at the mouth about being irresponsible and stupid.

        “Where’s the others,” the young blonde sister demanded, coming around the corner to nearly crash into the kid. Daryl bit at the corner of his thumbnail as the conversation flowed around him, tuning it out completely when he heard the utility truck crunch up the dirt and gravel. People rushed the huge vehicle, laughing and celebrating as their kin jumped out the back. His heart froze in his chest when he didn’t see a familiar head of white hair, or hear the distinctive sound of his brother’s grumpy bray.

        “Where’s Luna,” he demanded of the tall Mexican that was busy hugging his wife and kids, chattering about the man they’d brought back with them. “Where the fuck is-?”

        “Merle-,” Andrea started, stepping forward and instinctively pulling her sister behind her. “He went crazy and we had to-”

        “The fuck is Luna, you stupid cow-,” he was cut off when someone wearing a stained and stinking sheriff’s uniform stepped between them.

        “Calm down,” the other man said, using his own patented ‘cop voice’ to try and reason with the increasingly irate man. “We-”

        Daryl barely held back the urge to slam his fist into his face. “I wanna know where the fuck my woman is. Fuck Merle, he probly deserved to be left behind. Where’s Lu, you sonsabitches?”

        “Daryl, she disappeared,” Jaqui interrupted, stepping up and raising her voice to be heard. “Look, I have no idea how she did it, but one minute the girl’s in the back of the van with us, demanding to know where Merle’s at, the next there’s this loud crack and she’s gone. I thought I was hallucinating, seeing things, but everyone else saw it too.”

        Daryl suddenly went very still and very quiet, his hands clenching and unclenching. He snarled and whirled around. “When I get that woman back, I’m gonna fuckin’ kill her.”

        Rick turned to stare at Morales, who was looking guilty and decidedly pale. “He’s gonna head back in to get them, isn’t he?”

        “Probably. We should try to get him to at least wait till morning,” Morales sighed. “It’ll be safer then, and we can put together another small group. A quick in and out.”

        Rick nodded and rubbed at his eyes, then froze at a familiar voice. “Dad?” When he turned around, Carl was standing there, staring at him from the protective circle of his mother’s arms.

        “Carl?” It seemed like everything went into slow motion, then he was holding his wife and son, sobbing in relief.

 *~*~*

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, readers! Another day, another chapter! I've taken some liberties with the Walking Dead cast, because this is fanfiction, some of their background is kinda vague, and I totally can. ;) LMK what you guys are thinking, good, bad, or ugly (though if it's bad or ugly, please be nice when you're aiming it at me, sensitive creature that I am) Feedback makes writing on this worth it, and increases the chances of it continuing by a lot. :D Cheers!

*~*~*

        “Moon-girl, wake up.” Merle tapped Luna’s cheek gently with his fingertips, worriedly eyeing the steel door and the dozens of fists pounding at it. It was only a matter of time before it broke behind the push of so many mindless bodies. “Come on, baby. That’s it, open those eyes for ole’ Merle.”

        Luna whimpered as her eyes cracked open to the blinding light of the afternoon sun. She shivered and turned onto her side, taking stock of where she was and the state of her body. There was nothing bleeding or broken, though the ache seemed to go bone deep. Why was she so cold? She could feel the heat of the sunlight on her skin, but it was as if it wasn’t sinking in. She’d heard of heat sickness, her father having instilled the dangers of it into her from a very young age. Someone of her extremely fair coloring needed to be extra careful not to be overexposed. But it didn’t feel like heat sick, it felt… kind of like she had after the final battle was over; after days and weeks of no rest, little food, and overexerting her magic.

        “Tell me ya can get us off here, Lu,” Merle was saying now, nervously looking at the trembling door leading back down into the shopping mall. “Cause I can’t see a way outta here otherwise.”

        She pushed herself back upright on shaking arms and looked around dazedly at their rooftop haven. Closing her eyes, she focused on her magic, wondering if she had enough to at least get them out of the city proper. It wouldn’t be enough to get them all the way back to the camp, but she could at least apparate to the outskirts where Merle could hopefully get them into a car and the rest of the way back.

        Her voice was less than steady as she told him, “I can get us out, then you’ll have to get us back.”

        “Honey, get us offa this fuckin’ roof and I’ll take care of the rest.”

        She fixed him with those eerie silver-blue eyes of hers and he felt a chill go through him. “If I do this, Merle, I’m going to be out. You’ll have to get me the rest of the way to safety. I can’t guarantee where we’ll end up, and I will be completely drained. My core will be exhausted and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

        He nodded and felt like a complete shithead. It didn’t help when she smiled one of those sweet, crooked smiles of hers and added, “At least, if I get eaten by the dead, I won’t feel it. There’s a bright side to everything. My Papa was good at saying…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head vaguely. “No matter. When we get there, take my wand and keep it safe. Don’t let anyone see it or touch it. Promise me.”

        He nodded again, “Got it.”

        She nodded back, took a breath, gathered whatever magic she had left, gripped his hand, and apparated.

        When they reappeared, it was at an old used car lot of all places. Merle’s triumphant grin disappeared when Luna crumpled at his side, her entire body going limp without another sound. He worked quick after that, taking the polished stick she called a wand and scooped her up in a fireman’s carry, thanking whatever was listening that she was underweight and relatively easy to haul around. Breaking the window out of an old, discounted pickup, he efficiently pulled a shirt out of her strange backpack and laid it across the glass before maneuvering her inside. He heard the telltale sound of shuffling just in time to kick the walker back and away.

        Luck was still on his side, cause it was only the one for the moment, quickly dispatched. Moving fast, he stripped the steering column and set to work hotwiring the old rig. How the fuck she knew to get them to an old junker was beyond him. The kid didn’t know shit about ‘muggle’ technology, fuck… she’d stroked his old motorbike with a weird expression of wonder and fear. And she sure as hell didn’t know fuck all about the city.

        It didn’t take him long before they were headed out of the city with a nearly full tank of gas and a head full of questions.

*~*~*

        Almost an hour later, he pulled over at an easily defensible and visibly clear spot to check on her. Luna hadn’t so much as moved from the position he’d put her in and despite himself, he was worried. No one else besides his brother had ever stuck their neck out for him, not like this. Keeping one eye out for anything coming out of the woodwork, he pressed dirty fingertips to the side of her neck and felt for her pulse. Very slow, but steady. Her chest was rising and falling in an easy rhythm, there was no outward sign of trouble. She’d said that she would be out, and Merle had to admit that when she said something, she fucking meant it.

        He stared at her for a long moment. She’d done something to him up on that rooftop, something more than just saving his worthless ass from walkers. When she’d put those cool hands against his skin, he’d felt all the shit he’d been poisoning himself with through the years being drawn out, along with the cravings for it. He held up his hand in front of his own face and watched how it wasn’t shaking. His guts weren’t tied in knots, and his teeth didn’t itch. There wasn’t even any desire for a fucking cigarette. Nothing. It was as if he’d never even heard of the shit.

        After another moment, he got out of the truck and strolled around to the back to take a piss and stretch his legs. There was about an hour left of sunlight and he wanted at least to be close to the campsite when dark hit. The other bastards would be there too, including that piece of shit that dropped the goddamn key and then left him there. There’d be a reckoning with that sumbitch, and the cop that cuffed him in the first place. But first he had to get around his brother, who was gonna be pissed enough to try and gut him. Maybe if he put the woman out first, Darylina’d be too preoccupied with that to try to take a swing at him. Maybe, if his luck held out.

*~*~*

        “Look, man, we need to wait till morning.” Shane tried to talk some sense into the silently seething redneck as he stalked through his campsite, shoving supplies into a rucksack. There was no guarantee that he was going to return back to this shithole, whether he found Luna and his fuckup brother or not. He didn’t want to stay with people who would just leave them behind. He and Merle weren’t known for their compassion or pussy ways, but for fuck’s sake, handcuffing someone to a metal pipe and then just leaving them without shade or water? That was going beyond booking it to save their own ass. “You’re not an idiot-”

        “Fuck ya if ya think I’m leavin’ them out there overnight, prick.”

        “We can plan this and make sure everyone comes back safe.”

        Daryl froze in place and turned to face the taller man, blood in his eye. His mouth was opening to give a scathing remark about exactly how much he trusted their goddamn plans, when he was interrupted by Andrea calling down from her perch on top of the RV. “Incoming! Looks like a late model truck, hauling ass up the road. Can’t see much beyond that, it’s getting pretty dark.”

        Heart leaping, Daryl dropped the bag he was holding and bolted past Shane and up to where the road met the main camp. The truck that rumbled up to a stop wasn’t familiar, but the person who pulled themselves out of it was. He completely ignored his brother and ran to the passenger side, jerking on the locked door, cursing as it didn’t open and the figure in the seat didn’t even twitch.

        “Hold up, Da-” Merle didn’t have a chance to get the rest of the words out before Daryl punched him in the mouth, knocking him back. Surprising the gathered crowd, the older Dixon didn’t retaliate, he just wiped at the blood on the corner of his mouth and watched as his baby brother ran around to the driver’s side and climbed in to check out his still unconscious girlfriend. Their stomachs fell as they watched him pull her limp form out of the truck and lay her out right there on the gravel.

        “The fuck happened?” Shaking hands touched her, stripping off her jacket, looking for blood or scratches or… or bites. Carol bit her lip and looked uncertain, before making a decision to rush forward to help. Rick stepped in then, ordering Lori to go get water and the kit in a quiet voice.

        “She ain’t been bit,” Merle told them, still strangely subdued. “Said she’d be out a while, somethin’ about exaustin’ her core or somethin’.”

        Daryl glared up at him, eyes glinting in the dim light of the lanterns, promising retribution. “Back the fuck off,” he growled when Rick started to pull Luna up. He snarled and pulled her up into his own arms.

        “The RV would probably be the best place to look her over,” Amy told them, snapping into the nursing school persona she’d left behind when the world went to shit. She’d been two semesters away from graduation when they’d had to evacuate. She followed a few steps behind, taking the kit from Lori as she passed.

        “Maybe it’d be better for the women to look her over,” Lori suggested as Rick started to follow Daryl inside the motorhome, his face set in worried lines.

        “If ya think yer gonna touch her, yer a bigger idiot than ya look,” Merle drawled, “Little brother ain’t too keen on lettin’ nobody touch the little moon that ain't him and maybe blondie.”

        “Then having Rick in there isn’t necessary.”

        “Just sayin’, if ya value yer pretty face, I’d stay back.” He raised his hands and turned his back on her, going to the pickup to grab Luna’s backpack from the floorboards. On the way, he thought about the shit in his saddlebags and felt sick even thinking about it.

*~*~*

        “Luna, baby, ya gotta wake up,” Daryl said quietly after he laid her on the couch, stroking the loose tendrils of hair back out of her face. “Lu? C’mon, darlin’, I know yer in there and yer tired, but yer scarin’ the shit outta me.”

        “Let me in there, Daryl,” Amy said gently, coming up beside him. She earned points by not just shouldering her way in, but it was still hard for him to back away to give her room. He hovered around the top of the bed, by the tiny sink, and watched as the young woman stripped Luna down as far as bra and jeans, his stomach clenched in knots as they found nothing but skin. Her brown trousers were clean of blood, but Amy still pulled the legs up to her knees to check for hidden scrapes or bites.

        There wasn’t anything to account for the utter stillness. She wasn’t dead; her heart was beating, her chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He watched as thin fingers ran through Luna’s hair, checking for head injuries, and there was nothing. When Amy sat back on her heels and looked up at him, she looked a mix of concerned and baffled. “Good news and bad news,” she said. “Good, she’s alive and not physically hurt. Bad, she’s out cold. It’s a deep one, and I don’t know what we can do. I tried smelling salts and there wasn’t even a twitch. But as long as she’s breathing, we should let her sleep it out for now.”

        Rick was looking at the mess of scars across Luna’s stomach, and his jaw tightened as he saw the words branded into the tender flesh of her hip and lower abdomen. _Blood Traitor._ The letters were about an inch and a half tall and a quarter inch thick, the skin pink and puckered even years healed. He felt bile come up to the back of his throat as he looked at the rest of the evidence of actual torture. In all his years of being an officer of the law, he had never seen such atrocity. He knew it existed, of course, he wasn’t naïve. He remembered the cool way her eyes had assessed the trouble back in the city, how she’d quietly stepped in and risked herself to clear the way for the group and hadn’t waited for arguments.

        “There ain’t nothin’ to do,” Daryl sounded strangled, but if Rick and Amy hadn’t been watching so closely, they never would have seen the emotion that fell across his face. “I’ll take ‘er back to the tent for now. I wanna keep an eye on her.”

        “It might be better to keep her here for now, Daryl,” Amy tried to say, but was nudged to the side as he moved in to pick her up. Scrambling up and realizing that it was useless to argue, she took a knitted blanket and draped it over the younger girl. It didn’t take a genius to realize that Luna probably didn’t want everyone seeing her half-naked.

        When they were alone, Rick leaned against the counter and scrubbed at his face wearily. He dug fingers into his eyes and tried to block out the sight of all the scars embedded in the girl’s pale skin. There were more, he knew there were. “She didn’t get them from the Dixons,” Amy informed him softly. She’d sat down on the couch, elbows leaned on her thighs and hands clasped between her knees.

        “What?” Rick blinked at her, having forgotten she was even there.

        “Lu, she didn’t get the scars from the Dixons. They’re crazy and mean, but they’d never hurt her on purpose. They… take care of her, and it seems like she takes care of them. Up until a couple nights ago, we didn’t even know she could talk. Lori thought she was somewhere on the autism spectrum, but she’s not. I didn’t think it was worth arguing about, but I knew from the get-go that she wasn’t addled in any way. Looking at what she’s gone through, it’s no wonder she doesn’t like to communicate with a lot of people. It’s a miracle she’s even okay with being in a group this big.”

        “Do you know what happened to her?”

        Amy shook her head, then shrugged, lifting her hands in an ‘I don’t know’ gesture. “Jesus, it’s only been a couple days… it seems like it’s been forever. There was a ruckus between the Peltier’s, and Ed got mean with Carol… Luna kinda… she kinda snapped and jumped between them. She took the punch aimed at Carol, then went wild. It was like she was somewhere completely different. For someone so little, she took out Ed with one punch. You saw him earlier; two black eyes, broken nose and fat lip. She had him on the ground and was about to hit him again when Shane tried to pull her back.” Amy bit her lip to stop the amused grin.

        “She took him down too. It was surreal, he had her by the waist one second, then the next he was on the ground, gripping his balls. Luna scrambled back on the ground, kinda crab-walked back away from everyone. The look on her face…,” Amy swallowed hard, all amusement gone. “She was so far away, and it wasn’t a good place at all. She was more scared of Lori than she was of the men, I think. Daryl hauled her up and got her calm. Ed got all ‘watch your back’, and she told him something like ‘I’ve faced worse than you’. Lori’d seen her scars before, when we were bathing at the quarry.”

        “Does anyone know what happened to her?” Rick’s mind was going into overload, so much had happened in such a short period of time that he was having trouble sorting it all out. It seemed easier to focus on someone else’s problems rather than his own.

        “You’d have to talk to Shane, I think he had a talk with her to make sure we could avoid it all happening again.”

        “Yeah,” Rick nodded, his thoughts drawn back to his best friend and partner. He pictured the look on Shane’s face when he’d stepped out to face him again. The shock, the happiness, then the quick snap of guilt that was quickly covered by a combination of all three. After that, they’d been separated as Rick had been consumed with reuniting with his wife and son, and Shane had gone after the raging Dixon in an attempt at damage control.

        He smiled at the young woman before stepping back out to find Lori and Carl. That was enough for one night. He was ready to give in and bask in the relief at seeing his family alive and safe. He pushed away all of the doubts and insecurities for a different time.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the responses! For a while there, I was wondering if I might be wasting my time with this one. :D Here's what we've been waiting for, and thank you for your patience. This part is setting up and we'll be getting to the groups meeting up very soon. Cheers!

*~*~*

        “Harry? Harry! Ron! Oh, shite, come here!” Dimly Harry could feel hands on his arms and shoulders, guiding him to sit on a nearby stump. His head felt light and for a moment, he felt as if he were going to vomit. She was gone. That spark that he’d been clinging to for so long, dragging him forward even when he’d wanted to give up and lie down to wait for inevitable death, was just empty space now.

        “She’s gone,” he whispered, stunned. They guided him down, and his vision was blocked by Neville’s concerned face. The other man looked confused for a moment, then stricken when Harry’s words fully sunk in. “She’s… oh, Merlin. I can’t. I just fucking can’t.”

        “What’s going on,” Ron pushed forward and took a knee next to Neville, one hand going to rest on Harry’s shoulder. “C’mon, mate, what happened? Are you all right?”

        Neville stood up and backed away, his broad shoulders shaking as he walked toward the edge of their camp. Harry watched him go, unable to call out, unable to do anything but just sit for a moment. They’d been following Harry’s connection to Luna since that awful run in with the muggle survivors. They were close, so close that Harry had been able to feel the brilliant vibration that was Luna’s magic. He’d been in a surreal sort of state all day, feeling so close to the girl he thought of as more precious than a sister. It had been hard to concentrate; it had felt like he could just reach out into the ether and touch her, to hear her voice.

       All of a sudden it had changed. That warm vibration was gone, snapped off like a switch had been thrown. There was nothing, not even a fade like it had been with Hermione. No, this had been a snap. For the first time since he’d come back from the dead during the Final Battle, he couldn’t feel Luna Lovegood.

        He’d been able to feel all of them at first. Everyone and everything, all of their energies had surrounded him in an overwhelming cacophony of _too much._ Luna had taught him how to push that back and only let the ones in that he wanted to feel. She’d shown him how to control those extra senses that had come with going too deep into the abyss and coming back. He’d never figured out exactly how she’d come into that knowledge herself. He’d hated seeing that vacant, dark look in her eyes, so he hadn’t asked.

        A mug of tea was shoved in his hands, and he had to concentrate on curling his fingers around the warm ceramic. “Drink it up,” Seamus ordered hoarsely.

        Dutifully, he brought the pungent smelling tea to his face and sipped at it. Calming draught mixed in with their usual breakfast tea. It was one of the last of their stores, and Harry felt a surge of irritation at their use of it now, without discussing it. He was bloody well fine. He was… his face crumbled and the mug fell from nerveless fingers to spill all over the dirt in front of him. Breath shuddering, he doubled over and rested his face against the tops of his knees, the black tide too much to handle.

        Off to the side, further back in the cleared hillside where they’d set up temporary camp, Draco moved as if in a daze, putting his back against a tree as he tried to reconcile the mix of emotions that rolled through him. Lovegood was gone. He hadn’t the opportunity to formally apologize, to make his actions during the war right. He would never be able to look her and face that awful time in his family’s dungeons. He bent over, palms on his thighs as he tried to breathe around the weight in his chest, swallowing back the bile that rose to the back of his throat.

        After the wizarding world fell, he’d managed to follow Potter’s small group from afar, keeping on the outskirts and trying not to be obvious. Even when they’d managed to get to muggle America, he’d stayed back, unsure of his welcome but having come too far to back away. When the gunfire had broken out and he’d seen Lovegood apparate, he’d been caught up in helping the other group survive. After that, he’d been found out and indoctrinated into their group- after an intense interrogation that included one of the precious vials of veritaserum that had made its way into their stores.

        He’d been with them since, a quiet but efficient background character that made sure he was useful. The war had changed him in ways that he couldn’t define out loud. Some of the changes were obvious to those that had grown up with him at Hogwarts, but some of them went much deeper.

        Draco remembered that horrible night in his family’s dungeons, being summoned in by his aunt to see the sadistic woman with her hands in places on his classmate that made his stomach roil in disbelief. At fifteen, he hadn’t been a prude, or inexperienced and he’d lived in a Death Eater household long enough to realize that their depravity had no boundaries- men, women, children… no one was safe from it. He just hadn’t ever witnessed this level of torture before on someone he knew.

        He would never forget the look of abject horror and shame that had been written all across Luna’s pale, pale face before she’d gone vacant again. He’d watched those silvery eyes go unfocused, despite the visible trembling of her nearly emaciated form. The two Lestrange brothers and Greyback were hovering over the two women, faces hungry and eager to fall on the blood traitor. Draco hadn’t been able to allow it.

        The back of a wildly shaking hand rested on his mouth as he forcefully drug himself back to the present before he was sucked in deeper. It wouldn’t do any good to go back there.

        “What do we do now?” Ron was resting on his knees within touching distance, one hand tentatively resting on Harry’s shoulder as he watched his best friend closely.

        “We find her,” Harry answered, his voice bleak and resigned. “Even if it’s just her shell, we owe it to her to put her to rest. I still know the general direction in which she was located. Tomorrow we continue.”

        No one argued when he stood up abruptly and went into the wizarding tent they had all been sharing. Seamus clasped a hand on Ron’s shoulder and went in the same direction that Neville had taken. No matter how private a person’s grief was, this was no time to be wandering off by themselves.

*~*~*

        _“Luna, we don’t have much time. You must listen to me, carefully.”_

_They were sitting on the shores of the black lake beside their old school. Hogwarts loomed behind them in a weird mix of fog and sunshine, the early spring morning bringing its usual contradictory sensations. The sun was rising, but not quickly enough to disperse the lingering chill and the haze that was still lightly rolling off the dark waters in front of them. Luna wiggled her bare toes and sighed in contentment. This had always been her favorite time._

_“Luna!” She turned her attention to Hermione and smiled dreamily. Her old friend looked as she had in their third year, before everything had gotten so hard. Wild curls cascaded around her heart-shaped face, framing it perfectly. Tanned skin was clear and her features so achingly young. This Hermione hadn’t seen the ravages of war just yet. Her only stressors had been passing classes and trying to keep her best friends out of trouble. It had only been brewing then, coming to a slow but steady boil._

_“It’s lovely to see you, Hermione. It’s been far too long.”_

_“Yes, yes. It’s lovely to see you too, Luna,” Hermione looked a bit startled, but sounded impatient. That had always been her problem, Luna mused. She was so practical and impatient, unable and unwilling to pause and really take things in. As much as their peers had said the sorting hat was wrong and Hermione should have been Ravenclaw, Luna knew that it had sorted her friend exactly where she belonged. Brash, impatient, and so achingly courageous. “However, our time here is limited and I have some things I need to tell you, so please do me a favor and listen, yeah?”_

_The speech patterns were definitely that of Hermione’s younger self, Luna mused. Proper and almost stiff, as if she were quoting from one of her books. It was as if she weren’t used to speaking to others in a conversational manner. What a lonely existence she must have endured out in the muggle world. Always different, and set aside for those important differences. Her intelligence and driven nature made it hard to relate to her peers. Not for the first time, she found herself relating to the older girl._

_She sighed and turned her full attention toward her friend, despite her longing to soak up as much of the familiar peace as she could before she was returned to the much decayed reality. “I’m listening.”_

_Now that she had Luna’s full attention, Hermione seemed to falter a bit, opening and closing her mouth a couple times. Finally, she blurted, “You need to trust Draco.”_

_Luna reared back as if she’d been struck, easy posture gone. That had been completely unexpected. Hermione’s lips pursed and she hesitantly took Luna’s hand, keeping her from jumping up. “He’s changed, Lu. You saw it in the final battle and the time afterward. He needs to make it right, to give back what he took from you.”_

_“There is no way for him to give me back what he took.” Luna could hear the sharp tremble in her voice, and she wanted desperately to float away again. She didn’t want to face this, to speak of_ that _. It was the one thing she had kept to herself and had never spoken of. The marks on her body were impossible to hide- despite layers of clothing and avoiding intimacy, they had still been known. No one knew of that particular horror besides she and her tormentors._

_Hermione softened and there was something in her brown eyes that was achingly sad, and far too old for the face they looked out of. “When Harry and the others find you, he’ll be with them.”_

_Luna felt as if her insides had turned to ice. She wanted nothing more than to stand and retreat, to leave all of it. There were other things she could be doing here in this not-quite-Hogwarts. The thestral herd must-_

_“What he did to you wasn’t right.” Hermione was still speaking gently, still holding Luna’s hand. “Situation aside, it was still awful and he took something from you that never, ever should be taken by force. I don’t blame you for not forgiving-”_

_“What else did you need to inform me of,” Luna asked, not so subtly interrupting, skirting around the topic. “That couldn’t be all that you needed to say.”_

_Hermione sighed and looked as if she wanted to argue, but instead started speaking of other things. She spoke of scientists, farms, and prisons and bloodthirsty men. She spoke of people yet to come, and the people that had to leave. Her words washed over and sank into inherent memory. When she finished, she held Luna’s gaze for a long moment before saying, “You’re not allowed to remember all of this, but the overall knowing will come through. It will come to you as you need it. You’ll wake and think that this was a strange dream. Luna, will you tell Ron and Harry that I love them? That I didn’t want to leave them behind?”_

_Luna felt the sting of tears and felt that it was unfair that she should be feeling this in this setting, that even this pre-war place and time had been tainted for her now. How could she return here again and see it the same way?_

_“Luna,” Hermione touched her fingers and Luna turned her eyes back out to the lake. “Luna, above all, know that you’re not alone.”_

_“No, I’m not, am I?” Luna’s tone never moved from its slow drawl, but somehow managed to carry a hint of sarcasm that was rather uncharacteristic. “Hermione, what if I would rather not return? What if I am finished and want to remain?”_

_“I’m sorry.” Luna turned to look at her then with glistening eyes. She wasn’t surprised when Hermione finished, “It’s not your time to quit. You’re needed, and I honestly don’t think you really want to go just yet. Do you?”_

_“I am so tired.”_

_“Yes.”_

_“I guess I must be off then.” With that, the golden fog disappeared, and she was back in the nothingness._

*~*~*

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! Yay! Thank you guys for the support and for reading this thing! It's progressing and we'll soon be merging the two groups :D

*~*~*

        Merle watched his brother cradle his girl on their makeshift bed toward the back of the tent. He hovered in the doorway and took a breath before going inside and zipping it back up behind him. Daryl lifted his head and glared over at him in warning. “Don’t fuckin’ push me, Merle.”

        “I ain’t aimn’ to push,” Merle kept his tone low, matching Daryl’s hushed volume. “We’ve gotta talk.”

        “Fuck that. There ain’t nothin’ I wanna hear from your mouth.”

        “Too bad,” Merle stubbornly plopped himself down into the makeshift chair Luna had conjured to make their space more homey. He looked around at the magically expanded space and wasn’t surprised to see her touch all over the place. There was an honest to God full-sized rug running the inside of the entire tent, along with cushions of all sizes and types decorating their sleeping space. It wasn’t something that he’d ever put together for his brother. Daryl was… he wasn’t purple and gold pillows.

        “If’n ya not gonna leave, at least be quick about it.”

        “Your girl didn’t have to come back for me,” Merle drawled after another long hesitation. He ran a hand over his short-cropped hair and sat back in his chair, eyeballing his brother seriously. “No shit, man, she fuckin’ did something to me on top of that goddamn roof. That’s why she’s like she is now. I was trippin’ balls, hardcore. I went all asshole and the other yahoos put me down. Cuffed me to a fuckin’ pipe and left me. I was ‘bout ready to cut m’own hand off when she popped back in.”

        Daryl held Luna a bit tighter at that, burying his face in the top of her head as if to reassure himself that she was still there. At this point, she’d been out cold for nearly an entire twenty-four hours. It was the deepest sleep he’d ever seen. There was absolutely no movement aside from the regular up and down of her breath. He listened to Merle go on, talking about how she’d somehow sucked the poison out of him, then collapsed.

        “Man, it’s like I ain’t touched the shit before.” Merle looked uncomfortable and a little awed as he made eye contact with Daryl for the first time. “I just don’t want it. There ain’t even a twinge of cravin’.”

        “She’d better fuckin wake up, Merle,” Daryl said quietly after a long silence. “I ain’t doin’ this shit without her.”

*~*~*

        _Luna wasn’t entirely surprised when she didn’t fade back into her body immediately. It seemed as if her unconscious mind was far from done with her, she mused as she stared out from the widow’s walk on top of the home she’d shared with her father since forever. It had been one of her favorite places to go to relax and organize her thoughts. The air was usually a bit crisper up here, but a few warming charms and a thick cloak had taken care of that quickly enough._

_She idly sipped at the cup of chocolate her subconscious had provided and sighed at the decadent taste. It had been too long since she’d had the treat. It would probably be even longer before she had it again._

_“I never tire of the view.” Luna turned a genuinely pleased smile to the men who had appeared behind her. Professor Lupin had always been nice to her and she’d been rather sad when he’d left his post at Hogwarts. In her opinion, he had been the best defense master they could have retained. She had gotten to know him a bit better during the last few months of the war, the older man seeking her out after a rather disturbing encounter following her release from the Malfoy dungeons._

_She had listened in silence as he had talked for a while about utter nonsense before finally getting to the point. “Our scars,” he had said in that low, gentle way of his, “they don’t define us, Luna. They are a part of us, but they are nothing to be shamed for. They show what we have endured, what we have survived. They are a sign of strength.”_

_Those words had broken her. Finally, after months of holding in all the emotions and the trauma of what she had suffered, the dam had broken and he’d held her while she’d cried it out, sometimes screaming in a way she hadn’t done since she’d been too small to remember. He’d held her tighter as words tumbled out and she’d confessed all but the darkest of hurts. When she was done, he had tucked her into a peaceful nook in the front parlor of their safe house and made sure no one bothered her. She had slept for nearly an entire day. They hadn’t spoken of it again, and less than two months later, he was dead._

_“Professor Lupin,” Luna greeted him now, then offered, “Would you care for some chocolate?”_

_He accepted the second cup and handed the third back to his companion, who was smiling at her in a fond manner that she thought was a bit strange. She hadn’t really gotten to know Harry’s godfather very well, mainly hearing about him secondhand from those who did know him. It depended on who you were speaking with on what type of person he really was. Harry had always idolized him, and knowing Harry as well as she did, Luna figured that was as good of an endorsement as she was ever going to get._

_“You look like your father,” Sirius commented, smile widening as if he could hear her thoughts. “Xeno was an oddball but a riot to be around. He had the best sense of humor of anyone else in Ravenclaw, helped us with some of our more spectacular pranks, didn’t he Moony?”_

_“That he did,” Remus agreed, leaning back against the railing. Luna wasn’t afraid of it snapping and sending him to his death. It looked much sturdier than it had when she was a child, and besides, he was already dead. She reached for one of the lemon biscuits on the tray and nibbled at it while the two men seemed to figure out what it was they needed to say. Sirius seemed a bit put off by her quiet patience, taking a couple of the sweet treats to occupy his hands. No doubt he was waiting for her to ask why they were there. It seemed rather silly, but Luna wasn’t entirely keen on moving this forward. She wasn’t in any big hurry to return just yet and seeing their familiar faces was enough for her for now._

_“Luna, we need you to remember us,” Remus said finally, speaking in that gentle cadence that she identified as his trademark. “We need you to remember all of us… to Harry, and for Harry. All of our teachings and our adventures, they need to be preserved. This plague isn’t going to last forever, and your small group of Hogwarts students aren’t the only magical beings to have survived. You all carry the answer…”_

_Sirius made a small noise and gripped Remus’s hand, stopping him from continuing. He gave a stern look that seemed very out of place. Remus cleared his throat and squeezed his companion’s fingers, letting the touch linger. “Just remember us, yeah? Don’t let your magic go, keep it close and keep it strong.”_

_Luna felt a tug near her bellybutton, not unlike the pull of a portkey, and she calmly placed her cup back on the tray. “I’ll keep what I can,” she promised, then blinked her eyes and found herself staring up at the canvas ceiling of her tent._

*~*~*

        It was as if he’d walked through an electrical field, all the hair on his body came to attention and there was that burning pressure just under his skin. Harry stumbled and would have fallen if Ron hadn’t been right there next to him to grab his arm. His tongue felt thick in his mouth and his eyesight went blurry, a buzzing in his ears made hearing anything but muffled sounds impossible. Dimly he felt himself being lowered onto a downed log and Neville was kneeling in front of him, large, rough hands touching his face.

        “L-Luna,” he managed, his chest impossibly tight as he recognized what it was. He could smell lavender and lemongrass, so light as if to almost not be there. It was the scent he always associated with Luna’s magic. Gentle and clean, yet powerful and bright. As quickly as it had come over him, it faded back. It was still there, but it wasn’t as overwhelming. He felt hysteria start to rise and uncontrollable laughter spilled out, even as he started crying.

        “Harry, Merlin’s balls, man, we don’t have time for ya to lose yer shite now,” Seamus sounded both concerned and exasperated, causing Harry to clutch his sides and laugh harder.

        “L-Luna, sh-she’s all right,” Harry managed after a couple minutes, making the other boys freeze.

        “What’re you on about,” Neville demanded, dark eyes riveted on Harry’s, a sudden spark of anger lighting up his face. “Harry, I swear…”

        “No,” Harry reached out and grabbed Neville’s hand when it looked like the other man was going to storm to his feet and away. “No, Nev, she’s really… I can’t explain it, but I can _feel_ her, like I did before, only closer. She’s so fucking close.”

        “Can we follow it the way we did before?” Ron asked before anyone else could interject with other questions. If his best mate had finally cracked, then they would soon know for sure. If he hadn’t, then they’d be finding their lost comrade. “Using you as a compass?”

        Harry closed his eyes and concentrated, visualizing the path in front of them and imagined the yellow cord that connected him to Luna. It tugged and he stood up, determination lighting his green eyes. “Yeah, yeah we can. We need to go.”

*~*~*

        “Hey, there, bright eyes,” Daryl greeted her when she stirred in his arms, a small whimpering sound escaping as she processed the ache that seemed to have seeped into every pore of her body. He sounded relieved and there was a vulnerability to his voice that made her turn her face into his chest. “Nice ta have ya back.”

         She found that her voice was missing again, crawled back into her throat where it seemed to be pouting. Her senses were all scrambled and it felt like she was deep underwater. Everything felt difficult and even the smallest of movements seemed to take so much effort.

        “Shh, darlin’,” Daryl stroked her gently, his big hands moving over her shoulders and spine. She could feel the warmth of him, the solidness of his body anchoring her. She wanted to tell him about the strange dreams she’d had, but it was stuck and she was so _tired_. “It’s alright, baby. It’s okay, I’ve gotcha. You’re okay.”

        Because it was Daryl, she believed him. She felt his breath against her temple and a hint of wet against her skin, then she was fading back out into a more normal sleep.

*~*~*


End file.
